City of Lawton officials aren’t ready to make decision on new LATS complex

City of Lawton officials are still mulling over the idea of reducing the mass transit project planned for Railroad Street, by focusing first on the indoor transfer center.

Members of the City Transit Trust (a function of the City Council) didn’t make a decision Tuesday, but several members indicated they agreed with a recommendation from Hendrickson Transportation Group to divide the LATS project into two phases: leaving the maintenance, storage and operations functions at the Bishop Road facility in south Lawton while focusing the city’s initial attention on LATS’ first indoor transfer center. Keeping the other three activities at their current site will make it easer to obtain the full funding that could allow the transfer center project to begin in 2025, said LATS General Manager Ryan Landers.

Landers also said continuing to use the facility on Bishop Road is a short-term solution, but also is one that could be a long-term solution with the offer made by the owner of two nearby vacant buildings. One building located west of the current LATS complex is suitable for administrative operations, and Landers has said his staff could be ready to move into the building in early November if the transit trust approved the decision by late October. The second building, a 25,000-square-foot warehouse north of the LATS complex, still needs to be analyzed before officials made a decision on whether it can be used for maintenance and storage, Landers said. Both are needed to solve severe overcrowding conditions.

A decision is needed soon because design architects are nearing the point that the city needs to make a decision on construction designs. Officials have said a full-sized complex couldn’t begin until federal grant funds were available to cover the cost of all four functions that would be included in the complex to be built south of the public safety complex on Railroad Street.

Landers and city officials have said it would be easier to find federal funding for the less-expensive indoor transfer center. That facility would replace the outdoor transfer center at Southwest B Avenue and Southwest 4th Street, giving both riders and bus drivers amenities such as restrooms and indoor seating.

Ward 4 Councilman George Gill, who chairs the council’s Downtown Transfer Center Site Committee, said his committee would look at the details and bring a recommendation back to the transit trust. Gill has said for months that he supports the idea of concentrating initial efforts on the indoor transfer center.

“We need to get a terminal,” he said.